High surface area biocarbon monoliths for methane storage

New energy sources that reduce the volume of harmful gases such as SO_(x)and NO_(x)released into the atmosphere are in constant development.Natural gas,primarily made up of methane,is being widely used as one reliable energy source for heating and electricity generation due to its high combustion value.Currently,natural gas accounts for a large portion of electricity generation and chemical feedstock in manufacturing plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals.In the near future,natural gas will be widely used as a fuel for vehicles.Therefore,a practical storage device for its storage and transportation is very beneficial to the deployment of natural gas as an energy source for new technologies.In this tutorial review,biomaterials-based carbon monoliths(CMs),one kind of carbonaceous material,was reviewed as an adsorbent for natural gas(methane)adsorption and storage.

Solar thermal swing adsorption on porous carbon monoliths for high-performance CO_(2)capture

Utilizing solar energy for sorbent regeneration during the CO_(2)swing adsorption process could potentially reduce CO_(2)capture costs.This study describes a new technique—solar thermal swing adsorption(STSA)for CO_(2)capture based on application of intermittent illumination onto porous carbon monolith(PCM)sorbents during the CO_(2)capture process.This allows CO_(2)to be selectively adsorbed on the sorbents during the light-off periods and thereafter released during the light-on periods due to the solar thermal effect.The freestanding and mechanically strong PCMs have rich ultramicropores with narrow pore size distributions,displaying relatively high CO_(2)adsorption capacity and high CO_(2)/N_(2) selectivity.Given the high CO_(2)capture performance,high solar thermal conversion efficiency,and high thermal conductivity,the PCM sorbents could achieve high CO_(2)capture rate of up to 0.226 kg·kgcarbon^(-1)·h^(-1)from a gas mixture of 20 vol.%CO_(2)/80 vol.%N_(2) under STSA conditions with a light intensity of 1000 W·m^(-2).In addition,the combination of STSA with the conventional vacuum swing adsorption technique further increases the CO_(2)working capacity.

Novel Magnetically Interconnected Micro/Macroporous Structure of Monolithic Porous Carbon Adsorbent Derived from Sodium Alginate and Wasted Black Liquor and Its Adsorption Performance

The novel and facile preparation of magnetically interconnected micro/macroporous structure of monolithic porous carbon adsorbent(MPCA)were designed and presented herein.The synthesis was achieved via conventional freezedrying and pyrolysis processes.In this study,sodium alginate and wasted black liquor were employed as starting precursors.Sodium alginate acts as a template of materials,whereas black liquor,the wasted product from the paper industry with plentiful of lignin content and alkaline solution,played an essential role in the reinforcement and activation of porosity for the resulting materials.Moreover,both the precursors were well dissolved in Fe^(3+) solution,providing a simple addition of a magnetic source in a one-pot synthesis.The interconnected micro/macroporous structures were generated through freeze-drying and,subsequently the pyrolysis process.The obtained cylindricalshaped monolithic porous carbon adsorbent(MPCA-700)showed high mechanical stability,a high BET specific surface area(902 m^(2)/g).Such aforementioned features were considered suitable to make the synthesized monolith as an adsorbent for the removal of heavy metal ions.The maximum adsorption capacity of MPCA-700 towards Pb^(2+) ions was 76.34 mg/g at pH 5.The adsorption studies illustrated that adsorption kinetics and isotherm perfectly fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and Langmuir isotherm,respectively.This work presents a promising protocol to reduce the overall costs in the preparation of renewable adsorbents with good adsorption efficiency and regeneration.

Acid/Base Treatment of Monolithic Activated Carbon for Coating Silver with Tunable Morphology

Silver coatings on the exterior surface of monolithic activated carbon（MAC） with different morphology were prepared by directly immersing MAC into [Ag（NH3）2]NO3 solution. Acid and base treatments were employed to modify the surface oxygenic groups of MAC, respectively. The MACs＇ Brunauer-EmmettTeller（BET） surface area, surface groups, and silver coating morphology were characterized by N2 adsorption, elemental analysis（EA）, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）, and scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, respectively. The coating morphology was found to be closely related to the surface area and surface functional groups of MAC. For a raw MAC which contained a variety of oxygenic groups, HNO3 treatment enhanced the relative amount of highly oxidized groups such as carboxyl and carbonates, which disfavored the deposition of silver particles. By contrast, Na OH treatment significantly improved the amount of carbonyl groups, which in turn improved the deposition amount of silver. Importantly, lamella silver was produced on raw MAC while Na OH treatment resulted in granular particles because of the capping effect of carbonyl groups. At appropriate [Ag（NH3）2]NO3 concentrations, silver nanoparticles smaller than 100 nm were homogeneously dispersed on Na OH-treated MAC. The successful tuning of the size and morphology of silver coatings on MAC is promising for novel applications in air purification and for antibacterial or aesthetic purposes.

Synthesis of Mesoporous Carbon Monolith by Direct Carbonization of Compressed Sucrose/Silica Composite

Mesoporous carbon monolith was synthesized by the direct carbonization of compressed sucrose/silica composite, which was prepared by using sol-gel method. The structural and textural properties of the materials were investigated by XRD, DRIFT, N2-adsorption and SEM. The characterization study shows that the resultant carbon monolith possesses a relatively high surface area, large pore volume and well interconnected pore system. Addition of a certain amount of citric acid or aluminum nitrate into the sol-gel precursor of sucrose/silica composite could considerably change the structure parameters of the carbon monolith.

Nature-inspired porous multichannel carbon monolith:Molecular cooperative enables sustainable production and high-performance capacitive energy storage

The advancement of supercapacitors(SCs)is closely bound up with the breakthrough of rational design of energy materials.Freestanding and thick carbon(FTC)materials with well-organized porous structure is promising SC electrode delivering high areal capacitive performance.However,controllable and sustainable fabrication of such FTC electrode is still of great challenges.Inspired by natural honeycombs with cross-linked multichannel structure,herein,an innovative molecular-cooperative-interaction strategy is elaborately provided to realize honeycomb-like FTC electrodes.The nitrogen-doped porous carbon monolith(N-PCM)is obtained with advantages of interconnect pore structure and abundant nitrogen doping.Such strategy is based on naturally abundant molecular precursors,and free of pore-templates,expensive polymerization catalyst,and dangerous reaction solvent,rendering it a sustainable and cost-effective process.Systematic control experiments reveal that strong interactions among molecular precursors promise the structural stability of N-PCM during carbonization,and rational selection of molecular precursors with chemical blowing features is key step for well-developed honeycomb-like pore structure.Interestingly,the optimized sample exhibits hierarchical pore structure with specific surface area of 626.4 m^(2)g^(-1)and rational N-doping of 7.01 wt%.The derived SC electrode with high mass loading of 40.1 mg cm^(-2)shows an excellent areal capacitance of 3621 mF cm^(-2)at 1 mA cm^(-2)and good rate performance with 2920 mF cm^(-2)at 25 mA cm^(-2).Moreover,the constructed aqueous symmetric SC and quasi-solid-state SC produce high energy densities of 0.32 and 0.27 mWh cm^(-2),respectively.We believe that such a composition/microstructure controllable method can promote the fabrication and development of other thick electrodes for energy storage devices.